RAM Drive Program Test Results ...

These are the RAM Drive programs I have tested:

RAMDisk "Enterprise" (No longer available)

I tested the RAMDisk "Enterprise" with VMWare. The Operating Systems used were Windows XP (32 bit), Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit.

The program works as advertise but it does require some knowledge of the memory and your OS. The configuration is a little bit harder to get correct because of all the 'features' and the steps involved in setting up the RAMDisk. Over all this is a pretty good program but the time spent configuring the software isn't worth the cost. In other words ok to play with, I wouldn't spend my money on it.

Note: The terms RAM-Drive, RAM-Disk, and RD are the same thing a drive or disk utilizing the extra physical memory installed in your computer.

VSuite Ramdisk

I tested the VSute Ramdisk with VMWare. The Operating Systems used were Windows XP (32 bit), Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit.

Over all a very good program to use. How ever I wouldn't pay for this software when I can get the same results from a free program.

RAMDisk (by DATARAM)

When I had the 4D and 7D stop errors I removed my two 2 Gig DDR2 DIMMS and put in two 1 Gig DDR2 DIMMS until I figured out that it was the scanner driver causing my memory errors. Then I put the two 2 Gig DDR2 DIMMS back in, I left the two 1 Gig DDR2 DIMMS on the motherboard thus giving me 6 Gigs of memory. Cool, well sorta.

Note: I have since upgraded the computer with all DDR2 2 GB memory modules, this leaves 4.75 GB of physical memory for the RAM Disk.

I have 32 bit XP and Windows 7 loaded on this computer so the extra 4.75 Gig of memory isn't usable, 32 bit Operating Systems can only see 3.25 Gig of physical memory. What to do with the extra memory? A RAM Disk!

Troubleshoot, repair, maintain, upgrade & secure...     With this!

I tested the DATARAM RAMDisk with VMWare. The Operating Systems used were Windows XP (32 bit), Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit.

Once I was confident this program would not cause any problems with the hardware / OS I loaded it on my main computer. Then I used one of the features of the software to create a RAM Disk in the extra memory. The max size is any memory above 4 Gig that is allocated to the OS.

Then I made a folder on the drive called temp (it will be empty at startup) next I created an image of the RAM Drive with the drive letter I picked for the RAM Disk, set it to load at start up.

I restart the computer and check the RAMDisk, it is loaded and set for the drive letter I want, the Temp folder is there, great, next step is to move the Temp and TMP folders from the old drive to the new RAM Disk with the Environment statements under the System Properties.

Next I move the IE and Chrome temp files to the RAMDisk Temp folder, make the RD image. Restart.

Check the RD, yup the files are there and not on the old drive.

Over all the three programs worked as advertised. I give the DATARAM product the highest marks because it is not crippled. It also works the best for using the extra memory for the RAM Disk thus not giving up any memory the OS needs. If you to use more than 4 Gig of ram in your computer for your RD you will need to buy the license and it is less than $20, not to bad for what you get and at a third of the price of the other two RAM Disk programs reviewed here.

One more thing about using a RAM Drive for your temp files - my computer responds a lot faster than it did before moving the files to the RAM Disk, now that is worth twenty bucks any day. (Now I have upgraded the memory to 8 GB for a RAM Drive big enough for the Paging File, that does speed up the computer.)

Note: I have been asked a couple of times why not use ramdrive.sys from the DOS version that comes with Windows? Because it will not use all the extra physical ram that is available, only 2 GB max, the 16 bit barrier has been crossed but not far enough to utilize all the extra RAM in your computer, plus the fact that you can't make an image of the drive once you have it setup, you would have to use the old fall back process of a batch file to make the folders for temp and you couldn't put the PF (Paging File) on the RAM Drive... Too many problems and variables to mess with.

Sometimes a problem when resolved gives better results than just fixing the problem. 

Update 02-23-20 - When I wrote this article I was using XP as my primary OS, I would use Windows 7 for the newer games that were 64 bit, however a 64 bit OS can see up to 128 GB of memory so any extra memory over the 3.5 that XP could see Windows 7 needed (only 8 GB RAM in the system). That was until recently, my old Tower computer (at 20+ years old) and the ASUS p5K motherboard were superseded by my new Tower with a ASUS H370 motherboard and 32 GB of Ram (an upgrade to 64 GB!). One draw back to the new system is that there are not any drivers for the XP OS, I am struggling to find and install drivers for Windows 7 (another article coming soon) so it has Windows 10 and Windows 7. I installed the DATARAM RD on the system and gave it 1GB for Win 7 and 33GB of ram for Win 10 to test the theory that it would work, it does, well with some problems that needed to be addressed but now it is is stable and once again my hard drive isn't being filled with temp files...